The home audio/video interoperability (HAVi) architecture is a set of application programming interfaces (APIs), services, and an on-the-wire protocol specified by an industry initiative. HAVi facilitates multivendor interoperability between consumer electronics devices and computing devices and simplifies the development of distributed applications on home networks. The HAVi architecture strikes a balance between the demands of consumers and vendors by facilitating both device interoperability and the innovation and introduction of new features or refinements. A key feature of HAVi is that each physical device has an associated software proxy. Adding new proxies to a home system makes new features or devices accessible even to applications running on older devices